Day 1: Train Tracks, Backwards Rivers, and Hot Chocolate

Nico was one of the very few that Skipper trusted with her life. So, when a very territorial pack member from the French decided to blow up the train that they were on, Nico ended up tied to Skip from a long chain while he stayed in the run-away car. Skipper was above trying not to lose her balance for it was winter and the train car's roof was riddled with invisible sheets of thin but deadly ice. Nico was desperately trying to find a way to stop the car when it hit him: there was no way to go but down. So naturally, when Skipper won the match, the duo jumped off the still speeding train car into the freshly fallen snow. They could only wish that the snow had had a softer touch. And perhaps warmer.

The sixteen-year old son of Hades had no clue where he was. Skipper sniffed the crisp, pine-scented air and stated that she knew exactly where she was. One hundred percent… Nico was sure to remind her of that later when they were both shivering walking the same stretch of land for what seemed like the tenth time. How did they know? They came across their own footsteps. Again. And again. And once more.

"Face it. We're lost."

"We," Skipper said matter-of-factly, "are not lost. I'm just retracing these steps so I remember them for next time." She kept walking. "Duh."

Nico snorted and said, "What next time? Who says there's going to be a next time? If we don't find someone or somewhere soon, there won't be a next time!"

She stayed quiet for a while after that. No need to upset the son of Hades furthermore. You see, Nico didn't really have a temper problem, but when you could already see an angry side of him… Well, lets just say you probably shouldn't push it.

"Wait," Skip's voice rang out, as sharp as the frosty air. She crouched down low into an unnatural pose that was really more animal than human. A low growl echoed from her throat. Definitely not human. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary other than the teenage girl crouching and growling like a maniac. A snap came from the opposite direction where tall pines gathered closely together as if to escape the frigid cold… or, as if to hide something… Skipper strained her neck to look where the snap had come from but found nothing. Nico, who was carefully watching Skip to make sure she stayed put, already had his pure black Stygian iron sword out. He spun around checking his surroundings once, twice, and a third time for added measure. Nothing.

"Well, whatever it is, it's gone now," Skipper said, straightening herself out. She cocked her head to the side and looked Nico up and down. "Hmm…"

He furrowed his eyebrows. "Hmm, what?"

Skipper shrugged nonchalantly and simply shook her head. "It's just," she started, " well I mean, we kind of stick out like sore thumbs with all this white so it's no wonder an animal or something doesn't want to be near us."

Nico pondered what his friend said. "I suppose you're right."

"Yeah, I'm right"

"Okay, okay! Sheesh."

After another half hour of shivering, swearing, teeth chattering, and some close calls with pine trees (let's not get in to that), the demigods had finally made it to what seems like new ground. Another five minutes and they were standing on a rather large cliff and could see their surroundings from miles around. To the right and left were forests, the left one seeming to have a denser population of evergreens. There were other pines scattered about but they stayed on either side of a clearing that seemed to narrow down the further away you looked, almost as if…

"It's a river!" Nico's sudden change of spirit (and volume level) was enough to make Skipper jump.

"Your point?"

"My point is that we should follow that river and see if it leads to anywhere useful."

"You can see as well as I do-well actually no, you can't, but you understand what I'm trying to say. You can see as well as I do that there is nothing but snow and trees and boring, cold nothing more miles. It would just be easier to turn around and go back for the train tracks."

"Oh, so you can get us lost again?! I think we'll try my way."

"Or, so we don't freeze to death, we can go back to the tracks. It rhymes. It's a sign from Apollo. There. That settles it. We are going to go back to the tracks."

"No, we're not." Nico was seriously getting annoyed now.

"Yes, we are."

"No."

Skipper huffed and turned away to scout the left forest. Nico grumbled about his protector pulling an 'Annabeth' while he trudged off a little ways to scout the right forest.

The next thing that happened was so unexpected that both healthy sixteen year olds almost had a heart attack. BOOM. A chunk almost impaled Nico before he could turn around to see what had happened. Skipper stifled a scream as a large heap of ice landed right in front of her, obstructing her view of the sight. Both demigods recovered from their stupor and were both shocked and amazed to find that the solid ground they had been standing on not a moment earlier had burst from the pressure of an ice cold river trying to break through and be free to flow. Pieces of snow-covered ice were breaking off the size of Apollo's sports car chariot flowing downwards towards the edge of the cliff. It was a strange but spectacular sight. The river down below was still completely frozen along with the waterfall that must have been there.

The teens both seemed to ask themselves the same question: what would happen to the water once it fell down the waterfall? Skipper seemed to have moved on to realizing the bigger problem. The river flowing from back the way they came was actually flowing. Chunks of ice were still dropping (that's the only thing they could do after falling down the 'somewhat' waterfall) down the cliff and they weren't getting any smaller, in fact, one that just passed her was easily the size of Nico's pet hellhound, Mrs. O' Leary. The river was too wide to leap across for Nico. Even Skipper knew she couldn't clear the wide space. So she did the only thing she could think of. She ran back the way they came hoping that she could catch up to the rapidly cracking river.

The laws of physics didn't seem to matter to this river in particular, Nico thought. The river flowed forward but it was flowing uphill. Suddenly gravity didn't matter. None of that mattered to him after a crazed hellhound jumped out at him out of nowhere. Even though Nico was a son of Hades, no matter how hard he tried to tame the beast, he couldn't. The dog jumped at him and he sidestepped to avoid it. Nico hardly made it without getting his black shirt ripped to shreds.

"Argh!" Nico tried to cut the beast but it was too fast for him. With the swipe of its enormous paw, it threw the son of Hades in the air. He landed with a thud about 30 feet away from the rivers edge and wouldn't move. The hellhound moved in for the kill. Nico was still lying in a crumpled heap in the snow, not moving.

Skipper had seen the fight but hadn't been able to help him as she was still stuck on the other side. And she was starting to panic. That's it, she thought.

"Enough!"

A pure black wolf nearly the size of a cow replaced her. The dog backed up and broke into a sprint. With a mighty leap she barely made it to the other side of the river where the hellhound was advancing on Nico much too quickly. A low growl escaped from the mouth of the black wolf. A warning. The hellhound turned to face its opponent, snarling. Then it all happened at once. The hellhound lunged and the wolf ducked out of the way. The wolf ran towards Nico. He was still breathing, thank the gods. The wolf had just enough time to nudge the unconscious boy before the hellhound attacked again. The wolf countered and ended up slashing its maw. Howling in pain, the hellhound backed away a few yards and studied its opponent once again. It roared with rage. The wolf did not return the call but let out another warning growl. Ears back, lips curled, teeth bared, the wolf made it clear to the hound to leave. The hound grumbled and trotted off back towards the tracks. The shadowy dog turned to Nico and nudged him again.

"Ughh," he groaned.

The dog morphed back into the gothic looking girl and she knelt down to Nico's side. The boy tried to sit up but when he did, the color drained from his already pale skin. He lay back down and squeezed his eyes shut.

"Shh, Kid. Don't move. Don't get up. Just stay still, kay?"

"Yeah, no need to tell me twice." Skipper smiled and sat down. She pulled Nico towards her so that he could rest on her lap. She ran her fingers through his dark hair and just stayed there scanning the horizon.

"Fine," she said after a moment.

"Hmm?"

"We'll try your way. We'll find a way down there. We'll murder whatever gets in our way."

Nico stayed silent for a moment before answering, "Um… I'm not too sure about that last part."

"Oh shh. You need to rest."

"Riiight… Rest when it's like 0 degrees. Makes perfect sense," he said through clenched teeth.

"Can't you like, be a man and suck it up?! C'mon," she said as she rose to her feet," just try to stand up." Skipper tried to help him up again. He stood up and stretched. He seemed alright until he started to take a step and almost ended up with a face full of snow. Skipper caught him before he could land.

"Alright," she sighed. "Come on. I'll give you a ride. On my back, Kid. Hold on tight, don't fall off." As soon as she finished the black wolf from before replaced her body. The wolf watched Nico as he tried to get on her back. He fumbled a bit. She became impatient and gave him a boost with her head. She shifted a bit to make him as comfortable as possible, but they both knew that riding a wolf the same way as riding a horse was definitely not the same feeling. It was much, much worse.

Eventually, about an hour later, they were safely down the snowy cliff. Now the question was which forest they would be going into.

"Whataya think, Kid?"

Nico half-waddled, half-walked around, trying to get feeling back in his legs.

"Well, the right forest has less trees but the left forest might have more," he paused for dramatic effect," spontaneous events."

"Meaning more monsters and schist."

"Well, undoubtedly more monsters but their may be someone who is willing to help us," he said sounding pretty doubtful himself.

"Kay. Left it is."

"Bu- I mean- I didn't say-"

"Dude. We're takin' the left forest. No more complainin'."

Skipper took lead and Nico followed cautiously behind. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering and Skipper had had enough. She spun around and glared at him. He looked down in response but said nothing. They both just stood there saying and doing nothing. Except for Nico's teeth still chattering away. Skipper huffed and marched off. If she hadn't stopped and waited for Nico she would've gotten her head skewered by an arrow. A dark red wood arrow sprouted from the tree not a half a foot away from Skipper's nose. Quickly, she took off to cover Nico who was having a hard time trudging through the snow.

"Kid, get down," she hissed. Nico moved to get his sword but Skippers hand fell on top of his. "No, not yet. I can handle them. Just stay here. Scream if you need anything." With that, she left to go make minced meat out of the person who had just tried to kill her. The son of Hades did as he was told but it was a bit hard for him to scream for help when someone snuck up from behind and gagged him. It was a man who grabbed him. Nico had to think of something quick. Nico had one clear idea but he hated the thought of it. So evil it just had to work. He tried to struggle but the man's steel grip had locked him in. One shot. One shot to make it. Nico did the most evil thing he could think of. With one sharp backwards kick, the mystery man's steel grip was broken as he crumpled to the ground, his voice way too high for his monstrous body.

"Really is all men's weakness," Nico muttered to himself as he drew his sword. The burly man cowered when he saw it.

"Most would think you'd have a tougher act to match that big, burly body of yours," Nico mused.

"Please. Please, not that wretched rock. I will give you whatever you want just please put away that damnable sword!"

"Well, well. Looks like you got thing under control, Kid!" Skipper emerged from the trees with her shirt wet, and a darker black than before. "Hey Kid. You can kill him if you want. I got all the information I needed. It's all good now." The mystery man looked at her in horror.

"You, you," he stammered," you killed my employer?"

Skipper snorted. "Well what did you expect me to do, silly? Kid, you can slice him now. Go ahead." Nico wouldn't move. He looked back at the mystery man.

"If you try anything…"

"Oh no, lord. I will not, I swear it on my employer's soul!

Nico sighed and went to put away his sword when the burly man stared to jump up. He never even got to stand up again before Skipper sent chains to wrap around him, again and again. His whole body was completely covered in dark chains that seemed like they were made out of smoke. In an instant, the chains pulled themselves apart. The man was nowhere. He had disappeared when the chains straightened out and vanished. Nico stared at the empty space in front of him.

"I never knew you could do that," he stated quietly.

"Yep, well. See I'll teach the little punks who say Thanatos isn't powerful. Feel the wrath," Skipper laughed. Nico wasn't smiling.

"Your shirt… Is it," he didn't finish. He didn't need to. Skipper's glare told him exactly what he wanted to know.

"Kay lets get going, punk!"

Skipper acted as if nothing had happened. As if she hadn't just gone an a little killing spree. As far as her demigod friends knew, she had bested every opponent she ever fought with. They were constantly reminded of that when she frequently got in fights. Usually she came out completely unscathed while her challengers looked like they have been through wars.

As long as Nico had known Skipper, he still could never understand why she chose to stand by him. Nearly polar opposites, himself being quiet and laidback, and Skipper being loud and wild. She had a funny way of acting like a mother sometimes, trying to calm him down or put him to sleep as if he were a small child. Nico was amused by it because she acted so much like a child herself; it was almost funny when she acted so mature. But he knew better. As immature as she may seem to others, Nico knew it was all an act. An illusion to hide her responsibilities and duties. None of their Camp Half-Blood friends knew the pride Skipper had for her packs, a few groups of secret immortal demigods of which had pledged their alliance to her. She was alpha, another oddity considering that alphas are usually either a male or a male and female pair.

Nico knew just about everything anyone ever knew about Skipper. He knew everything from her secret bouts of insanity to what her favorite ice cream was to what side of wars she was on. He knew more than most members of her packs knew. Her emotions were almost always unreadable even to satyrs but Nico had always been able to decipher her moods, even as children. He considered her a true friend. His one and only friend, really, but he also knew that she did not feel the same towards him.

Skipper knew more than Nico knew about himself considering his memory loss. She always kept an eye on him but not because of something as frail as friendship. It was her duty to protect Nico from harm and keep the powerful demigod from being killed. She seldom thought of him as a friend for it was dangerous. Nearly all of her friends were either dead, have died before, or were always in constant danger.

Zeus had never liked the wolves and thought of them as traitors since they were first created. Therefore, there was not much love for them on Mount Olympus. The place that took them in freely was Hell. Literally. Hades liked the dogs very much and decided, against his brothers wishes, that he would allow them to travel freely to the Underworld and back if they were ever in need. The Underworld provided as a safe-haven for the werewolves ever since. Though few still used it for its intended purpose (or those who never went to it at all), Skipper considered the Underworld her home away from homes. A nice place for vacations.

Nico whistled to break the awkward silence that the duo had been enveloped in ever since the chains incident. He had stopped shivering and his teeth had stopped chattering. Skipper kept ahead, staying quiet.

"Skip," Nico called out.

She stopped, turned, and gave him the evil eye.

"What?"

He hesitated,"It's just, why? I mean, why would you… I don't know, I guess I'm not used to it. But you shouldn't. It's not right."

"Yeah, no shit," she paused for a moment, "And get used to it. Killing doesn't stop when you're powerful. We're both monster magnets. I'll do the dirty work if you don't want to but don't tell me it's wrong. It's a kill or be killed world. And I'm not gonna die by some weak old monster. I'm also not gonna let you kick the bucket before your time's up either. So deal with it."

More walking.

More silence.

More thinking.

Darkness was falling fast and the two had still not found anything. The temperature had been falling along with the sun making Nico's teeth chatter and his body shiver.

"Hang in there, Kid. I smell something. Like, food or something… Damn, I'm hungry."

Nico had to smile at this because despite the pressure, cold, monsters, arguing, and plain frustration and confusion, his best friend still only thought of one thing: her stomach.

"D-do you think it's l-like a house or something?"

"Yeah… Yeah, I think so," she giggled. "C'mon, hurry up I'm hungry!"

A clearing could be seen and through the clearing, a house. It was a log cabin with a nice, warm glow to it. Skipper seemed enchanted by the quaint cabin scrambling, almost falling flat on her face, trying to get to the door. But she never made it to the door. A large dog slammed into her knocking her down, barking. The dog stood on her chest snarling. He looked about ready to rip into her flesh. Before Nico could do anything another dog, the same size as the first, tackled him, knocking him into the frozen ground. He let out a muffled scream. The dogs were a mix of wolf and German Shepherd and must have weighed 100 lbs. The teens who were occupied by the dogs, hadn't seen the figure emerge from the cabin that was now walking towards them. Nico saw the man first.

"Call off your dogs!"

The figure cocked his head to the side clearly thinking of the idea. He spoke, " Hmm. Call my dogs off or let them eat you."

"Knock it off," Nico snarled.

"My dogs, much like you, must eat you know," the man mused. He then let out a high pitched whistle which made the dogs come to his side.

"Look, man," Skipper said with a hint of exasperation," we have been through enough today. I ain't watin' to get food any longer. I'm quite tempted to kill you and cook you up now, but humans nowadays say that that is wrong, even in necessity." She muttered some things under her breath that probably weren't sweet nothings.

"You want food, eh?"

"Did I stutter?"

"Watch it, girlie or I might be tempted to send you back the way you came."

Nico stayed silent as the old man and young girl sneered at each other but intervened when the silence became overwhelming.

"Please sir, we really have had a rough day and we've nowhere to stay… I- er, We, would really appreciate it if you were to let us stay a night. We can leave as soon as the sun rises."

The old man grumbled before answering, " Well at least someone shows some respect for their elders." He glared at Skipper who only returned the look.

"I suppose I could let you stay if you don't cause any trouble."

"Oh, no sir, I'll see to it that she stays polite an-" the man put his hand up to silence Nico.

"Look you can stay." He thought a moment." But there's only one bed so one of you will have to sleep on the floor."

Skipper butted in with, "Nah man, it's cool. We'll just sleep in the same bed. No worries there."

He raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Ha- Trust me. There will be absolutely no fooling around…" She muttered something that sounded like "as much as I'd like there to be…"

The man didn't look convinced. He glanced at Nico who was staring at the snow-covered ground. In the dim light it was hard to tell but from the glow of the cabin it almost looked as if the son of Hades was blushing.

"Agreed, sir."

"Well, then come on, hurry up."

The warmth at first felt like the explosion on the train- hot. But the teens quickly adjusted. Nico's teeth had finally come to a quiet rest which Skipper was thankful for. The inside of the man's house was very snug and cozy. It had a bit of a women's touch in the décor; the wooden walls were lined with framed photographs with inspirational quotes, and after every few pictures, there was some sort of stuffed animal to be seen. A deer head here, a stuffed squirrel there. What caught the demigods attention was the stuffed dragon head in the middle of a small circle of animal trophies. Its skin was a coppery-white metallic color and its eyes- it had three- were a bright, bright lime-green.

"So… You hunt," Skipper asked the old man.

"Oh, that old beast? Bah. He was from a long time ago. I don't remember much myself- You see, I was about 18 and," the man paused," you both still look cold. Would you like a cup of cocoa?"

Skipper was on high alert and her eyes narrowed. The look quickly vanished as she shrugged and said, "Eh, sure. Why not?"

The man looked to Nico who replied, "Yes, thank you."

The man hobbled over into the kitchen, where the wonderful scent of hot chocolate filled the air. He returned a moment later with two mugs, green and red, filled to the brim with sweet, steaming hot cocoa. A single large marshmallow floated in the center of each cup.

"Thank you," Nico said.

The old man motioned to the worn down brown sofas at the other side of the room. In a matching worn down arm chair, lay the man's dog, watching them carefully. The other lay on the floor, snoring. The teens sat as the man began to tell his story.

"Now, where was I? Ah, yes- I was around 18 when I was sent by my own heart to slay a hideous beast that had been taking livestock and the occasional night-wanderer. My town had a very small population to begin with meaning that we simply couldn't afford to lose people, or animals. But the incidents kept happening until finally, one day, enough was enough. They sent a group of maybe 10 out to the woods. They were the best and strongest of our town and could easily take down lots of enemies. But none of them ever came back. My town was devastated. We didn't know what to do. Now, I was very upset at this because one of my brothers, Jean, was among one of the hunters that night and when he didn't come back, I swore revenge on that monster for taking Jean. My time came a few weeks later when the damned thing took another goat from our farm. All I had to protect me was my shotgun. That didn't matter. I found it in the woods sleeping off its last meal- my goat, of course. I already had the ol' gun aimed when he opened his sleepy eye. Shot 'em dead And cut off his head so I could mount it on my wall. I think he makes the place look nice, don't you?"

Nico was silent for a moment. "Mr. uh-"

"Castle. Jack Castle," the man said.

"Mr. Castle," Nico started. "How did all those people know it was a dragon?"

"They didn't. Most people were scared it might've been that freak wolf from the 1700's raised from the dead, haha. What did they call it… The beast of Gevauden! Yes, that's it."

Next to Nico, Skipper shifted uncomfortably at the sound of the name. Nico glanced at his friend but she turned away.

"Sir, what is the 'beast of Gevauden'," Nico questioned.

"Well, it was a very large wolf that prefered people over cattle. It terrorized the villagers of a town called Gevauden. This was back in the 1700's. A man finally killed it a few years later using a silver bullet. They gutted the thing and found a lot of er- human victims' random body parts."

"Are we near that town?"

"Well, I suppose so… It's about fifty miles south of here."

"Hmm. Small world," Nico managed before yawning.

"You must be tired."

"A little," Nico admitted with a smile.

"Well, the spare room is down the hall and to the left. Bathroom is right across from it."

"Thank you, Sir. And goodnight."

Nico shook hands with the man before going to the room. Skipper had gone to follow but that man quickly grabbed her arm in a wicked steel grip.

"I know what you are. And I don't like your kind around my part of the woods. I won't hesitate to put a bullet through your head the next time I see you. The French know this. Do your best and learn from 'em. My part of the woods- don't cross the line."

Skipper's jaw was set with her teeth clenched hard. She wanted to swat the old man upside the head and make him get permanent brain damage.

"Understood," she managed.

The man nodded. "Go on. You're still a kid. You need some sleep."

Skipper considered laughing loudly in the guy's face. He knew what she was and still told her to get some sleep. Some genius he was.

Nico was close to falling asleep when Skipper joined him. He lifted his head to nod a goodnight before he rolled over and started to snore lightly. Skipper sat at the foot of the bed for a while and thought. She thought about the beast, and the man, and that dragon head. She thought about the French, and the hit-man sent to kill her, and the old man's dogs. She couldn't commune with it. It felt… off. Skipper shrugged aside her thoughts and proceeded to get ready for bed. She took off her bra, pants, and socks and threw them at the wall as she envisioned the old mans head on it and her clothes as a frying pan. Head shot, she thought happily. She laughed and fought to get the covers from under Nico who had fallen asleep on top of them. Damn. You. Kid. He groaned and moved slightly to where Skip could retrieve the blankets. She took a moment to look at the son of Hades sleeping next to her. He looked peaceful. His body seemed so much more relaxed than usual. He also looked… cold. Nico was lying in a fetal position with one arm hanging off the bed. Skipper sighed as the tucked him in.

"That's enough for one day, huh, kid," She said more to herself than to Nico.

Skipper wrapped her arm around his sleeping body. "Night, Kid."

6136: So yeah... random story with oc and Nico... Not related to my other works.